INFANT MORTALITY RATES ALARMING
Kenyan Public Health Minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, said last week that
according to the national health statistics related to reproductive health,
10 women die every day from pregnancy-related complications, and that the
infant mortality rate has risen to 74 per every 1,000 live births.. Ongeri
noted that his ministry is addressing reproductive health seriously to
improve these worrying statistics.

He was speaking at his Afya House office when he received equipment and
drugs to be used towards implementation of reproductive health services from
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organisation
(WHO). The equipment, worth Sh9.2 million, include audio visual, data
processing, radio communication, medical and office equipment as well as
contraceptives and gloves.

Areas of concern are reproductive health services, quality of care, access
to services by young people, capacity building and improvement of service
providers' technical skills, supervision, referral and reproductive health
data collection and utilisation.

SOURCE: Mary Nzioka, East African Standard, 14/02/2002